The 10th Nepal-India Energy Secretary-Level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting, held in India on Saturday, has agreed on expanding electricity transmission lines and trade promotion between the two countries and beyond.
The Nepali officials, who participated in the JSC meeting, said India has positively accepted Nepal's proposal to export energy to Bangladesh by using India's transmission grid. An agreement to this effect will be inked after Nepal identifies the hydropower project that will be exporting electricity to Bangladesh.
India will conduct necessary examination of Nepal's hydropower project and approve as per the 'electricity cross-border guidelines' issued by India. Bangladesh has been lobbying India to import energy from Nepal. Nepal wants to export its energy to Bangladesh mainly from the 456-MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydel Project.
It is learnt that India has also agreed to approve Nepal's proposal to extend the duration and other additional hydel projects to trade electricity at competitive prices in the day-ahead market of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX). Currently, Nepal has received approval to trade up to 389 MW of energy in the IEX since the last one year. India has also agreed to exchange power from various districts of Sudurpaschim Province.
The JSC meeting has also agreed to expand capacity of three cross-border transmission lines and also discussed the investment modality of the new Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line.
Nepal and India will have five major cross-border transmission lines for exchange of power between the two countries. The meeting also discussed the transfer of electricity from the under-construction 900- MW Arun III project through the construction of the Dhalkebar-Sitamari (India) 400 kV transmission line. The meeting also decided to increase the electricity capacity to 800 MW from 600 MW from the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 kV transmission line. Once all the proposed cross-border transmission lines are completed, Nepal and India can exchange a large amount of energy during the dry and wet seasons.
Although India has shown a positive gesture on exporting Nepal's electricity to Bangladesh by using its transmission line, it largely depends on which hydel project(s) that Nepal will propose. Seeking the name of the project can be seen as both an 'obstacle' and a 'positive sign' as India's electricity cross-border guidelines prevent trading of energy produced by projects other than of the Nepal government or Nepal's private sector. Nepal has been seeking India's approval to export at least 50 MW of electricity to Bangladesh in the initial phase. For this, Nepal and Bangladesh held a meeting in August last year. So, Nepal must propose a project acceptable to India.
While the 10th JSC meeting has been termed a 'milestone' in the power sector, Nepal must focus its attention on utilising its clean energy in the domestic market. The Nepal Electricity Authority must come up with a policy which can encourage domestic consumers to use maximum electricity for household, industrial or transport proposes. The government must formulate a policy that encourages the people to switch to electricity from fossil fuel to run their industries, transport and kitchens.
Nepal must focus its attention on utilising its clean energy in the domestic market
A version of this article appears in the print on February 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.